News : Sanctions

INU - The upcoming US sanctions on Iran’s oil industry are likely to block South Korean refiners' access Iranian ultra-light crude, which could lead to higher retail auto fuel prices in Seoul, according to industry executives at the S&P Global Platts Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference in Singapore.

They said that 1.5-2 million barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude and condensate could be lost as a result of the sanctions and there are fears that this could lead to a global rise in oil prices, which would particularly affect Asian nations.

However, there are plenty of real substitutes for South Korea to choose from in order to maintain their current energy needs – Pioneer Resources' chairman Scott Sheffield suggested Eagle Ford condensate as one option at the conference - and many major South Korean refiners have already turned to alternative sources from Oceania, Africa, the US and Northern Europe.

Yes, this condensate costs more than the Iranian one and this can increase gas prices domestically and internationally, but this is nominal compared with the cost of US sanctions hitting South Korea.

Iran may have been selling the cheapest oil at that grade, but the problem is that the money raised will fund the Iranian Regime’s malign actions across the Middle East and beyond. No one wants to pay higher prices for oil, but surely no one wants to fund terrorism, proxy militias, or malign missile programmes either.

The US sanctions are supported by the Iranian Resistance and the Iranian people who see them as crucial to obtaining the overthrow of the Iranian Regime and bringing peace to the Middle East. They cite that Regime change is the only way to achieve this.

Some countries are trying to evade the sanctions, but they have warned against this by no less an authority that Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Iranian Resistance who told a conference on Saturday that Europe should abandon its deals with Iran and increase pressure on the Iranian Regime.

She cited that European money was being funnelled back into terrorist attacks in Europe and that the recent attempted bombing of the Free Iran rally in Paris in June was a test by the mullahs to see what Europe would let them get away with.

She said: “In committing these crimes, the mullahs are testing Western governments. In such circumstances, a lack of resolve or a passive attitude by Western governments will intensify the regime’s terrorist actions.”